Prison Gangs

The American system of justice should punish criminals correctly and when in serious need, the reform system should take over and punish them severely. The system of criminal justice in America is used to deal with crimes it cannot prevent and criminal it cannot deter is not a consistent system. It was not designed or built in one piece at one time. Its philosophic core is that a person may be punished by the government if, and only if, it has been proved by an honest and intentional process that he or she has violated a specific law. Around that core layer upon layer of institutions and procedures, some carefully constructed and some improvised, some inspired by principle and some by resource, have accumulated. Parts of the system magistrates'
courts, trial by jury, and bail are of greatly distant past. America's system of criminal justice is overcrowded and overworked, and very often misunderstood. It needs more information and more knowledge. It needs more technical resources. It needs more coordination among its many parts. It needs more public support. It needs the help of community programs and institutions in dealing with offenders and potential offenders. It needs, above all, the willingness to reexamine old ways of doing things, to reform it, to experiment, to run risks, to date. Therefore, The American system of justice should punish criminals but needs the reform system to back it up.
In 1851, California activated its first state run institutions. This institution was a 268-ton wooden ship named "The Waban", and was anchored in the San Francisco Bay. The prison ship housed 30 inmates who subsequently constructed San Quentin State prisons, which opened in 1852 with approximately 68 inmates. Since 1852, the Department has activated thirty one prisons across the state. Thus the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), is responsible for operating security such as state corrections, rehabilitation, probation and parole systems. CDCR is also responsible for enforcement and investigations of parolees and prison inmates as well as supervision and monitoring of state prison inmates. The CDCR is the second largest law enforcement or police agency in the United States behind the New York City Police Department which employees’ approximately 34,000 police officer (Benjamin 43). CDCR employees, approximately 29,000 peace officers, 1,800 state parole agents, and 692 criminal investigators/special agents make up investigators their headquarters are in. Some argue that prisons make us safer and should expand the use of imprisonment even more (Benjamin 46). This argument would lead to the idea that prisons would reduce crime and therefore make it safer by serving and conveying to commit another crime. Violence involved with gangs due to: Drugs, drug needs and sexual pleasure/needs (Benjamin 47). Drugs and violence would then lead to what I am going to talk about in the next section.
Violence, due to gangs, drugs, and sexual pleasure and needs are one of the main causes why there are problems in jails.
Most prison gangs do more than offer simple protection for their members. Most often, prisons gangs are responsible for any drug, tobacco or alcohol handling inside correctional facilities (Garbarino 50). Furthermore, many prison gangs involve themselves in prostitution, assaults, kidnappings and murders. Prison gangs often seek to intimidate the other inmates, pressuring them to relinquish their food and other resources (Garbarino 59). Also, prison gangs often exercise a large degree of influence over organized crime in the "free world", larger than their isolation in prison might lead one to expect. Violence due to drugs has caused uproar within the community of the jail cells and thus caused “War on Drugs”. Drugs lead to both massive increases in the prison population and high profits for drug trafficking. Larger prison gangs have consciously worked to leverage their influence inside prison systems to control and profit from drug trafficking on the street. This is made possible based upon the logic that individuals involved in selling illegal drugs face a high likelihood of serving a prison term at some point or in having a friend or family member in prison (Garbarino 63). The War on Drugs also led to large numbers of drug addicts serving prison terms, providing gangs with a significant method of asserting control within prisons, by controlling the drug
trade.
Hospital and treatments for inmates are not always safe and helpful. With little or no light, human contact and being locked in, guarded by guards for twenty-three hours, no wonder why this is the life of men in prisons that go insane and sadistic. Due to sanity, sexual assault is usually the factor to solve problems and is considered the second most serious offense against prison discipline in the federal system (Hooker 68). The elderly do not have constant protection in jail and they are not safe. Women and men get sexually abused and harassed constantly by other jail inmates and sexual assault would lead to STIs such as AIDS and HIV (Hooker 70). Females are more likely to get abused more than males, thus other males in jails would take advantage of this and abuse the females knowing that they would not get caught easily and getting away with such actions.
The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the lawful imposition of death as punishment for a crime. Death penalty is rarely used, but is still in place for serious crimes. Supporters of the death penalty: Think it is right for governments to kill criminals. They say that this punishes the criminal for their crime, or that it will stop other people from committing serious crimes (Hooker 97). Opponents of the death penalty, think that it is wrong for governments to kill people. There is the danger that an innocent person will be killed. As well, poor people, minorities, and Aboriginal people are more likely to be killed in countries with the death penalty. Opponents of the death penalty protest outside prisons where criminals are being killed (Hooker 98). Therefore, one half of the country has death penalties and the other half does not. In 2004 China, Iran, Vietnam, and the United States have accounted for ninety-seven percent of all global executions. On average, every nine to ten days a government in the United States execute a prisoner (Hooker 102). Countries that have death penalties include the United States, the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and Iran (Hooker 106). Canada, Australia and most of the European countries are countries that do not have death penalties. Most of the countries that have a death penalty use it on murderers, and for other serious crimes such as rape or terrorism with Authoritarian or Totalitarian governments; however, use it for smaller crimes like theft, or for saying bad things about the government.
Alternative punishment, concerning Americans, Correctional system and overpopulated prisons was necessary for the system of justice to use force. Many prisoners and staff are concerned about the rates of violence and their personal safety while in prison due to prisons being harmful and dangerous. Since 1998, the Bureau has trained staff members in methods of identifying and dealing with sexual assault among inmates (Parker 28). Before training the staff members in methods, the Bureau interviewed other prisoners and found out it was necessary to use force in specific situations (Parker 29). Such behaviors are also appropriate against certain people in jail cells. The Commission's first hearing opened with testimony from invited witnesses about safety failures and abuses from individuals with direct experience of prison life as inmates, corrections officers, or other staff (Parker 32). With many other aspects of imprisonment, prisons and the convicts that reside there may increase the unpredictability of life for inmates and the staff themselves. Handling this type of violence is used by physical force. The use of excessive violence by correctional officers against inmates has continued to the present. Inmates have been choked, kicked, punched, and hit with objects, by single or multiple guards, for offenses that range from an act of violence against staff, to verbal insults towards staff, to failure to comply with instructions.
In conclusion, the American system of justice should punish criminals and also needs the reform system to back it up. The American system of justice needed reform to help them punish criminals due to criminals acting out in jail. Evidence would be the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in which are responsible for operating security such as state corrections, rehabilitation, and probation and parole systems. Punishing gangs would be a solution to ease the problem when gangs would resort to violence due to drugs and sexual assaults. The death penalty is another punishment used against serious crimes committed by criminals and this is another act of justice used. Supporters of the death penalty think it is right for the government to punish the criminals by death and opponents of the death penalty think it is wrong of the government to punish the criminals by death. When prisoners are concerned about the rates of violence and their personal safety in prison, they resort to asking the staff on assistance and help. Training staff members in methods of handling situations such as sexual assault, fights and physical assaults would be considered “normal” among the staff members. The training methods would include using brutal physical force to stop and break down the assaulters; other methods would be stopping the assaulters mentally and attacking them in the mind.